Why use Bid Throttling?

Bid Throttling allows publishers to create “efficient” bids by temporarily pausing bid requests to SSPs after a specified number of no bids have been returned. Efficient bidding leads to higher win rates and improves inventory quality.

To set up Bid Throttling visit the Set up Bid Throttling documentation.

An example Bid Throttling is the following:

After 3 consecutive “no bids”, it appears likely that SSP B does not have any matching demand for the current user at this moment. Continuing to place requests is wasteful and diminishes the SSP “fill rate” metrics as well.

With Bid Throttling enabled, SSP B will be paused for 120 seconds. SSP A will continue to receive bids normally. After 120 seconds, SSP is re-instated and begins receiving bids again.

Revenue Optimization

While bid throttling restricts the number of bids, it can help optimize revenue by focusing on quality over quantity. Reducing the number of unfilled, low-quality bids improves the overall win rate.

Lower Carbon Emissions

Loading a webpage isn’t free. Heavy, resource-intensive webpages consume more energy than lightweight pages. Reducing the number of ad requests lowers a publisher’s carbon output. Website visitors using cellular connections also appreciate lower bandwidth usage, since cellular data is very expensive in some locations.

Better UX

Reducing latency and ensuring a smoother user experience can be accomplished with Bid Throttling. High bid volumes within a short timeframe can increases the CPU load and slow down the page rendering process. By implementing bid throttling, publishers can improve page performance, leading to better UX.

Advertiser Relationships

Bid Throttling can help maintain healthy relationships with advertisers and demand sources. Without Bid Throttling, publishers may flood the auction with numerous low-quality bids, potentially driving up prices and crowding out other sources. By enforcing limits on bid volume temporarily excluding “inefficient or wasteful bids”, publishers can ensure that demand sources only see high quality opportunities that are likely to be filled.

Testing

When adding a new vendor to the stack, it can be helpful to run an initial test before going live across the entire website. Bid Throttling, Traffic Shaping and A/B testing are ways to restrict a new vendor during initial testing phases.